OFFICIAL: Big 12 Conference to Expand in 2023
Big news dropped on Friday morning as Cincinnati, Central Florida, and Houston have agreed to a deal to exit the American Athletic Conference to join the Big 12 in the summer of 2023, according to a report from Max Olson of The Athletic. BYU, the other school joining the league, has already agreed to come to the Big 12 by July 1st, 2023.
The Big 12 had no choice but to expand following the news of its two brand powers, Texas and Oklahoma, jumping ship to join the SEC in 2025. The two schools can wait to leave the Big 12 and not be penalized with an exit fee, but the sense from the beginning has been that they are likely to leave prior to 2025.
With the addition of Cincinnati, UCF, Houston, and BYU, the Big 12 which was already the best conference in college basketball, becomes even stronger. Cincinnati and Houston have had a long history of success while BYU and UCF have had some bright moments in their respective programs as well.
On the football field, the conference will be even more competitive and be considered a deeper league. The loss of Texas and Oklahoma will certainly hurt the "brand power' that the league has, but Cincinnati is coming off a year in which they made the College Football Playoff, Houston is on the rise, UCF has had an enormous amount of success recently, and BYU is a very well-respected program nationally.
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